[jasin1]

Originally Posted by peanut

The post, as worded, made a very strong implication that all but a few "guests" were/are crooks.

"All of those guests are "not members". A few are people who just haven't yet joined the forum but are looking at posts. A few are "bots" from Google, FaceBook, Twitter and a few marketing firms.

A few, as defined by the Google Language Dictionary, means:
1. a small number
2. used to emphasize how small a number is

So, of the 689 "guests" mentioned in the post, most (virtually all - by implication) were/are crooks, according to the post. Or do you think "a few" means 60%? 80%? 95%?

You are correct, many (most?) do not realize the assault forums such as this take from spammers.

I do. I was the administrator for my Carpenters Union (my local chapters) web page and forum. In fact I designed them (the web page and the forum), implemented them and administered them for over seven years before I retired. It was a lot of work sifting thru the posts and culling out the fake ones and the fake registration requests. Still - I take exception to the idea that only "a few" guests are legitimate and almost everyone else are crooks. It is simply not true (in my experience) and is disingenuous.

this is EXACTLY how i’d expect a bot to respond ….hmmmm